Hit or Miss
by musicistherapy
Summary: Adolescent romance is awkward enough without the additional obstacle of total darkness. IchiRuki.


**A/N**: Okay, so this fic was inspired by the first annual IchiRukiLove contest over at Yahoo! groups. The prompt was "that was interesting" and the required length was between 1000 and 3000 words. I originally started this as an exercise in writing, because I'm slowly reacquainting myself with life on the internet, and in the end, it just seemed silly to base something on a contest and not actually enter it.

So here it is, and if you like it, the voting begins on September 1st and ends on the 7th. Members can vote at the IchiRukiLove Yahoo! group, and all other voting will take place (to the best of my understanding) at the profile page of author, gokusgirl.

Title: Hit or Miss

Author: musicistherapy

Rating: T

Wordcount:1578

Warnings:Language

"Fuck."

The sudden darkness was nearly impenetrable, and Ichigo cursed himself silently for his failure to remember the simple event that had been advertized throughout Karakura. Tonight was the night of the scheduled power outage that would allow crews to work on various defects in the power grid, and despite the flyers all over the high school, library, town hall, and scattered on telephone poles throughout the city, Ichigo had forgotten.

Prior to the unexpected blackout, Ichigo had been reclining comfortably in his desk chair, studying, but in the sudden absence of light, he was still for only a moment before he began to fumble for a source of illumination. His searching hands felt out the papers, books, and other currently useless items scattered across his desk, and he grunted in frustration.

But wait. Hadn't there been a flashlight in the tumultuous mess of the bottom drawer of his dresser? With that haphazard thought in mind, Ichigo stood and began to make his way blindly toward the chest of drawers that rested near the open window. The night was overcast, the feeble light of the moon muted further by the thick covering of clouds, and he swore loudly as his toe slammed against the edge of the dresser.

"Shit!" Ichigo spat, lifting his injured foot and hopping about in what would have been a comical dance, had there been light to see it. Muttering fiercely under his breath as the smarting pain receded, Ichigo was still very much preoccupied with his woes when a small form appeared in the window, an almost imperceptible silhouette against the inky blackness within and without.

Rukia, as always, was far more alert to her surroundings than Ichigo would ever be, and between the reiatsu that fluctuated mildly with his annoyance and the quiet stream of cursing, she was more or less aware of his position within the room. The extensive time she had spent with Ichigo had also given her a certain degree of familiarity with his moods and expressions, and as she dropped gracefully to the floor, she had to fight back a laugh as she pictured the annoyed scowl that must be in place right now.

She noted bemusedly that he still had not noticed her presence, and decided to announce it as she moved carefully towards him in the darkness.

"Ichigo," she whispered quietly.

Ichigo gave a startled shout, the note at the end suspiciously high pitched, and turned vaguely in her direction. After taking a moment to calm his nerves and regain control of his voice, he answered her.

"Where did you come from?" he asked gruffly, hoping that his low tone would compensate for his first, quite unmanly, reaction.

"Where else, dumbass? The window," she snorted. "Why are all the lights out?"

Ichigo's scowl deepened as he remembered the reason that he had been stumbling about in the darkness in the first place.

"Planned power outage," he answered in resigned annoyance. "The lights should be back on soon, but until then, we should find the flashlight. It's somewhere in these drawers." With that he carefully reached his arms out in front of him, feeling blindly for a wall or piece of furniture to guide him. Finding the cabinet in question, he knelt slowly and carefully, his still-throbbing foot a painful reminder of the dangers of leaping before looking, and pulled out the bottom drawer.

"I'll help you," Rukia replied easily, her highly attuned senses guiding her quickly toward the drawers, where she dropped down beside him. Ichigo shot a sidelong glance in her direction, but immediately felt sheepish at the realization that covert looks were a moot point in absolute darkness. The other drawback to the obscure blackness was that he was utterly unable to read her expressions or body language.

He tried not to pay attention to the way her leg rubbed against his as she leaned forward, and after sitting dumbly for a few moments, Ichigo took his cue from Rukia, who had already begun to rummage through the drawer, and delved his hands into its unknown contents as well. The silence between them was comfortable, much like his friendship with the woman next to him. When they argued, the barbs and insults that flew back and forth were second nature, and were only taken seriously for the duration of the fight. In quiet times, the peaceful companionship and easy camaraderie was enough to make Ichigo feel content, even happy. Disguised as he was by the darkness, Ichigo permitted himself a small smile.

Remembering once more, though, the reason that he was dwelling on his and Rukia's strong points in the _dark_, Ichigo scowled again before redoubling his efforts to locate the errant flashlight.

Ichigo felt his fingers close around the small, plastic cylinder they had been seeking at the same moment that he heard Rukia's quiet exclamation of triumph. He froze when he felt his large hands covered by her small ones. Rukia had ceased to move as well, and the silence between them felt awkward for the first time as her tiny fingers brushed tentatively against his own longer ones. Ichigo fought the unmanly urge to sigh when she lightly traced the outline of his hand. The action seemed outrageously flirtatious, considering Rukia's normal behavior, and Ichigo found himself responding to it quite willingly as he turned to face her. At least, he hoped he was facing her. He couldn't actually see her.

Throwing caution to the winds, he leaned down towards her in a decisive gesture, parting his lips slightly on the descent. He heard her quick intake of breath as she sensed his movement, but instead of stopping him, her hands reached up to grasp his shoulders. His tongue dipped hesitantly out of his mouth and he was immediately gratified by the taste of salty-sweet skin. He gave a tentative lick upwards over the smooth flesh, tracing the outline with the tip of his tongue, made all the more sensitive by the circumstances.

His brows furrowed as he realized that something didn't seem quite right, but his ardor was not decreased as he attempted to stifle a deep groan, and only partially succeeded. His lips latched on to the protruding flesh, and it was at that moment that Ichigo came to the uncomfortable realization that Rukia's lips were not pointy, and they definitely did not possess two symmetrical openings.

All of his movements ceased, even, it seemed, his breathing, as Ichigo grappled with the revelation. In the space of a heartbeat, he had reared back, crawling as quickly as he could away from her. _Nose!_ His mind screamed in horror. He had been making out with Rukia's _nose!_ The numb shock of his blunder was draining rapidly to be replaced by utter mortification, which increased impossibly when he heard her begin to quietly laugh.

The gods must hate him. It wasn't enough that he had tried and failed to kiss Rukia. He had wound up passionately kissing her _nose_. Ichigo cringed, and silently prayed that something might kill him at that instant, so that he could jam his own zanpakuto into his forehead and sink into the floor. Actually, that was too complicated. Melting or evaporating would be fine, and both seemed quite likely given the heat radiating off of his face.

He would have liked to say something, anything, in an attempt to salvage his dignity, but any form of denial or rebuttal was promptly squashed by the choked sounds of Rukia's laughter.

Wheezing, she finally seemed to gain control of herself, but the occasional chuckle still escaped as she began to address him.

"Well…that was…interesting," she bit out, and immediately lapsed into another fit of giggles. Ichigo found himself quite grateful for the darkness then. At least the physical signs of his embarrassment were invisible; although he was sure she could hear him beginning to hyperventilate. Having backed himself into the corner formed between the wall and the foot of his bed, Ichigo was at a loss for what to do next. His wounded pride and fighting instincts suggested that he should rectify the mistake, perhaps by kissing her until she couldn't so much as snicker. His flabbergasted conscious, though, thought that he ought to just make himself as small as possible, and hope that whatever judgment she pronounced would not be too harsh.

Ichigo was spared the pain of deciding which instinct to follow, though, as Rukia began to move and speak at the same time.

"Ichigo," she said kindly, and he imagined he could hear dismissal and recrimination in her voice as she knelt between his knees. At least it seemed she was going to let him down easy. Her hands touched lightly, shyly against his shoulders before she spread her small fingers and palms against the tense muscles there.

"Ichigo," she said again, more softly, and this time there was something else in her voice that Ichigo could not identify, though the gentle cadence lit a small fire of hope within him that perhaps this situation could be salvaged after all. When he felt one of her hands come up to caress his cheek tenderly, he was reassured.

When he felt her lips brush softly against his own, Ichigo forgot any notions of self-consciousness and responded eagerly and whole-heartedly. He felt her smile against his mouth as she spoke again, and a slow, wicked grin stole over his features at her words.

"Let's see if we can do better than interesting."

**A/N**: Yeah, another one. I just feel obligated to tell you that this is my first _published_ fanfiction, and despite its shortness, I did spend considerable time writing and going over it. So, basically, while negative reviews might break my heart (j/k - except not really) I really would appreciate some constructive criticism. I've never actually shared anything with "the world" and since I've been working on another, longer fic, I'd like to know what people think in terms of where I need improvement. Well, thanks :)


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